


Take The Bitter With The Sweet

by crackleviolet



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:13:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crackleviolet/pseuds/crackleviolet
Summary: Jumin is up to something and Jaehee's dream is at stake. MC decides to intervene.





	

It’s taken you weeks to pick up the basics of icing sugar cookies. Now, however, you have it down to a fine art. Love hearts, stripes, polka dots and more. Jaehee is more than impressed with your progress. She’s even started unironically calling you ‘maestro’.

The proof is in the eating, though. You could decorate a thousand cookies with perfectly executed bright red lips, only to stumble at the last because of poorly constructed dough or leaving them in the oven for thirty seconds too long. You’re somewhat fortunate in this respect. You have the world’s best guinea pig, even if his motives are on the questionable side.

“So,” you say, leaning back against the counter, arms folded. “Good?”

Yoosung brushes crumbs from his upper lip before giving you an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Perfect!” He says. “Just the right crumbly texture to accompany a cup of coffee.”

“You’re awfully technical today,” you chuckle, breaking off part of the biscuit for yourself.

It’s only meant as an observation and not to considered for longer than three or four seconds, but for some reason it leaves him stammering as if you’ve questioned something far more personal.

“Well...that is…”

He thinks about it for an abnormally long time and you’re sure you spot the faintest hint of guilt.

And at that, you sigh. Take a bite of the cookie you so dutifully broke off.

“What’s Jumin up to?” 

You can tell that you’re on the right track from the way he blushes a bright red. Ordinarily he’s only too happy to tell you about Jumin’s behaviour, tyrannical or not, so when he finally speaks and it is with the carefully considered words of one with a guilty conscience, you  _ know _ there is something he’s not telling you.

“He’s...ah...he’s working on a new project. Based on consumer trends.”

“Oh? Which ones?”

“He told me not to-”

Your expression barely changes, but Yoosung completely crumbles under the pressure as if you’ve twisted his arm.

“A coffee chain!” He splutters, bowing his head against the counter. “He's considering building a coffee chain in this area!”

And now it's your turn to overreact. As a matter of fact, it’s as if a cold stone is sinking in your stomach. A coffee chain in the vicinity would almost certainly ruin you and Jaehee. You have your regulars, to be sure, but when faced with a choice on the matter, the vast majority of the public will go for a name they recognise.

Jumin  _ knows _ this and you possess no doubts that this business move is personal.

“That  _ b-” _

_ “ _ I should go!” Yoosung says, eager to be out of the line of fire. In all of the time you've known him, you've never seen him move so fast.

* * *

When Jaehee returns from the wholesaler, you've decided on a plan of action and spent the past few minutes brewing in a fiery rage. At first you were upset, but then that transformed into a sort of helplessness at the prospect of wanting to fight back but not knowing what to do. You're smug when you finally settle on a plan, though, and that smugness becomes a fully fledged confidence that you cannot possibly fail.

“They were out of that icing you like,” Jaehee says as she walks through the door, “so I… what are you doing?”

It must be a strange sight. You're filling one of the paper bags you use to pack people’s take away lunches with sugar cookies and a thermos.

“I'm going to C&R,” you say, folding the bag over automatically and heading for the door.

Truthfully, you had planned to be gone before Jaehee returned, since you had a feeling she would protest your idea. In reality, though, she looks more confused than anything else, glancing from your brown paper bag to your expression of pure indignation.

“I’m going to regret asking this,” she says, placing her carrier bag on the floor. “But why?”

“Jumin’s being an ass,” you say. 

“[Name], I-”

“I’ve made him some coffee and I’m going to his office right now.”

“[Name],” says Jaehee, taking you by the shoulder. “I’m not sure what he’s done, but I really don’t think that’s necessary.”

You glance around the empty shop, remembering every busy afternoon you spent scribbling names onto cups and watching strangers fall in love. The thought of Jumin sitting in his office with a glass of wine and destroying Jaehee’s dream without a second thought only infuriates you further.

“It’s necessary,” you say, envisaging the exact piece of your mind you’re going to give to Jumin. “Are you coming?”

* * *

Jaehee says only one thing to you on the subway.

“The coffee,” she says, concerned for other people even in the middle of this crisis. 

“Don’t worry,” you say, cradling the paper bag. “I made it just the way I always do.”

It took the pair of you several months to get into an evening routine. When the coffee shop first opened, you spent many a night curled up on the couch and too exhausted to move, let alone get any work done on expenses or even laundry. After a little experimentation, you've worked it out to a fine art: after dinner, you do the dishes and Jaehee spends a few minutes updating her record of the day’s takings. More recently, you've taken to bringing her a cup of coffee and an iced cookie while she works and, every evening without fail, she comments on your icing as she takes a sip of the coffee.

There is so much that Jumin doesn't know. So much you want to say to him. Honestly, you're not sure you trust yourself to be civil and Jaehee’s expression of concern leaves you curious about whether she does either.

But it's for the best. You know that it is. It's like the old adage, that the key to a fulfilled life is not the pursuit of happiness, but balance: to seek tears as well as laughter and the bitter with the sweet.

* * *

Yoosung is confused when you ask for him at reception. So, for that matter, is Jaehee.

“Jumin almost certainly has meetings at the moment,” she says, as Yoosung leaves the lift. “He won't be able to-”

She assumed you planned to ask for an appointment. You didn’t.

The moment Yoosung approaches, a small smile and no doubt curious why you pursued him all of the way to C&R, you take the chance to snatch his staff ID clean from his jacket. He barely gets the opportunity to pick up on what you’ve done before you’ve sprinted back towards the lift and dived through the closing doors, using his ID card to select Jumin’s floor. Jaehee catches her breath beside you, out of breath from the sudden burst of activity and just as the lift begins to move, you’re sure that you can hear Yoosung pounding his fists against the doors.

You don’t care, however. Ordinarily, you might have and later on you might even feel an ounce of guilt. In that moment, though, all you have is anger, adrenaline and sheer unyielding will.

“Are you going to tell me what all of this is about?” Jaehee laughs as she confiscates Yoosung’s staff ID, presumably to prevent you from any further mishaps. You laugh too, though you never get the chance to tell her the full story, as a matter of moments later you arrive at Jumin’s floor.

During your (brief) planning process, you imagined storming through Jumin’s office door in a blaze of vengeful glory. In your imagination, he sat at his desk and could not hide his expression of shock as you approached.

The reality of it is quite different, however. He’s on the phone when you approach, leaving you to wait in awkward silence for him to hang up.

“[Name],” he says, almost casually. “How may I be assistance?”

He’s not in the least bit surprised to see you, no doubt because Yoosung or someone else in reception let him know in advance. Either that, or he’s all bluster and you don’t doubt that for a second.

“I-”

But Jaehee cuts you off.

“[Name] wanted to see your office!” 

She links her arm through yours. Jumin raises an eyebrow.

“See,” says Jaehee, turning on her heel and gesturing at the bookcases and filing cabinets. “Isn’t it nice?”

The word ‘nice’ is accompanied by a swift and meaningful elbow to the ribs, but if anything that just spurs you on.

“I came to talk to you,” you say, unwrapping your arm from Jaehee’s and taking a seat in the chair in front of Jumin’s desk. “I have something to say.”

“[Name],” Jaehee protests. “This really isn’t necessary.”

You pull the thermos out of the bag, along with the sugar cookies. Jumin watches you do so, only looking away from your fingers to look across at Jaehee.

“You’ve heard about my franchise plans,” he says, without a hint of hesitation. 

“Franchise plans?” Jaehee says, and only then does it occur to you that you never actually explained the reason you were angry enough at Jumin to confront him in his own office.

“Yoosung told me. He’s planning a coffee chain in the same area as ours.”

You’re not sure if you expected Jaehee to be surprised. Her reaction is in fact one of resignation, as if this had always been coming and she had only ever been waiting for the moment it arrived.

“I see,” she says, and even if you predicted her reaction thus far, you would never have guessed what she came to say next. “Pour the coffee.”

As a matter of fact, the comment takes you off guard so much that you hesitate.

“This coffee,” you say, unscrewing the cap with shaking fingers. “I made it myself.”

You planned an entire speech on the subway, but the words dissolve into nothing as you actually need them, so you improvise, cursing how cliched you almost certainly sound.

“I love our coffee shop,” you say. “I love our customers. I love icing our sugar cookies. And..if you take away our business, I won’t be able to make Jaehee coffee like this anymore.”

Jumin doesn’t ask for the rest of the story. Instead he reaches for the nearest cookie and admires your design. You picked one out in a hurry without paying much heed to how you had decorated it, but he seems to appreciate the lavender stripes. 

“You did this yourself?” 

“Yes.”

“Interesting,” he says, before reaching for the cup. “Yoosung tells me much, though I’ve not seen myself.”

You had a number of expectations of how the coffee tasting would go, too. He’d take a sip, you’d explain your dreams went into it and he’d reconsider the franchise. Of all of them, however, none included him taking a sip, only to spit the liquid back out again as if poisoned.

“Is there something wrong?” You ask.

“Is that a joke? This coffee is terrible.”

You lift the thermos and sniff the liquid inside, wrinkling your nose at the bitter scent inside before taking a sip yourself. It’s harsh against your tastebuds, but no more so than any other coffee you’ve tasted. You are a tea drinker and coffee is something you do not make a habit of indulging in, so in all honestly you’re not sure you would know a bad cup if you had one. 

“I don’t understand,” you say. “This is exactly how I make coffee for Jaehee.”

“Yes,” says Jaehee, planting a warm hand on your shoulder. “And I  _ love _ your coffee, [Name].”

She’s telling the truth even if she doesn’t deny Jumin’s criticism and it brings a flush to your cheeks. Jumin, on the other hand, is less than enthused.

“I hope the coffee you serve in your store is better than this,” he says, reaching for a water bottle.

Your heart skips a beat at the insult; not because you're particularly worried your coffee might be bad, but at the sudden realisation that you might have ruined everything for Jaehee. 

“I,” you say, “now just a minute!”

The hand she placed on your shoulder clenches into a fist. When he realises that both of you are staring at him, Jumin sighs deeply.

“I think you are misinformed,” he says, reaching into his desk drawer for a file.

“I drew it up this morning,” he says. “I think you’ll find the terms are fair.”

Jaehee accepts the file and slowly turns the pages of the document inside. Her eyes widen with every sheet and you can only imagine what horrors lay within. Eviction notices. Diagrams of the upcoming chain.

“This is…” Jaehee trails off and you fear the worst. “This is not what I expected.”

Jumin sits back in his chair and you're sure you can make out the faintest hint of a smile.

“Is your opinion of me that low?”

“Honestly?” Jaehee says. “Yes.”

You wonder what he plans to unleash. What horror is contained in the file?

“I'm sorry,” you say. “I should've known better and now I've ruined everything.”

“[Name]...” says Jaehee, even as you turn back to Jumin.

“I know that things ended badly, but grudges don't achieve anything----”

“[NAME]!”

Jaehee rarely shouts at you and, presumably never shouted at Jumin much in all of the time they worked together, for both of you are visibly surprised.

She turns the folder around so that you can read the terms and conditions Jumin referred to and finally you understand the entire situation. Yoosung did not panic and run away because Jumin plotted to build a rival coffee chain. He had panicked because his investigation into Jaehee's shop was research into a potential investment opportunity and he had (somewhat incorrectly) thought that you were onto him, a fact that would potentially land him in hot water with Jumin.

Jumin probably did have a grudge and it was a great business move to open a rival chain, but that wasn't what he was doing.

“You're investing in our store?!” 

You’re sure you don't believe him, even as you see the words written across the page.

And that's when you remember the old adage; an offhand remark from Jumin on the messenger about a fulfilled life. That life was not the pursuit of happiness, but balance: to seek tears as well as laughter and the bitter with the sweet. Strange that you had remembered his words, only to forget that he was the one to say them.

Similarly curious that you had held onto his anger and forgotten his capacity for reason.

“I am interested in such a venture,” he says. “If you are.”

* * *

You consider his words even as you scrub the dishes many hours later. You're plainly not the only one, for as you bring out a cookie and a hot drink, you find Jaehee rereading the paperwork.

“Oh,” she says, as she lifts the cup to take a sip. “It's tea.”

“I figured you wouldn't want my coffee,” you say, dropping your gaze to the floor.

Honestly, you're somewhat mortified that she has been drinking your bad coffee for so long. She, however, stands up from her seat and brushes a few loose strands of hair from your face.

“Nonsense, maestro,” she says, so close that her voice drops to a whisper and you can smell the tea leaves on her breath as she kisses your temple. “It's the only one I want.”


End file.
